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This is really but reasonable. China is a mighty country with many and great interests. Rarely indeed have the many small affairs in South Manchuria sufficient importance to be worthy of the consideration of the great officials at Peking. This duty lies with the Commissioner of Customs at Dairen, and he should report the case to the Court at Peking, should devise some suitable plan for the furtherance of the real interests of friendly trade, and exert himself to make the expression "equality of opportunity" a reality.
There has been of late an increase in the number of those matters which, relating to Manchuria, are liable to mistaken interpretation by the general public, and almost invariably they start with this question of the open door and equality of opportunity. It is essential that China, the sovereign ruler of Manchuria, should correct these misconceptions, and prove beyond doubt that equality of opportunity for all nations is a reality. The practical demonstration of the real intention of the Chinese Court and the so arranging that it shall be enforced without mistake or blunder are matters depending on the skill of the Chinese officials, and their responsibility in this direction is of the weightiest. For ourselves we have no doubt as to the experience of the Dairen customs officials or of their appreciation of the great principles at stake. Therefore we have full confidence that they will demonstrate that the open door and equality of opportunity, as also the mutual good feeling of the two nations, are realities. Nevertheless, the fact remains that, owing to the unorganized condition of the customs in North Manchuria, our merchants are in such straits and our trade in so parlous a condition that not a delay can be permitted.
day's
This being so, we beg their careful attention to the question.
(Initialled)
H. P.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Resolution presented at a Meeting of Japanese Merchants on January 30, 1908. (Translation.)
THE Dairen customs were opened in accordance with the Agreement published in Foreign Office Notification No. 13 on the 1st July, 1907.
Since that date we have without exception paid duty on all goods exported or imported through Dairen. Yet, notwithstanding the notice given our Government by the Chinese on the 7th July last, to the effect that arrangements had been made with the Russian Government for the opening of Chinese customs stations in North Manchuria, the said customs have not, as a matter of fact, yet been opened.
No duty is levied on merchandise imported into or exported from the north, nor are any formalities required in connection with them. The equality between north and south is thus, and long has been, non-existent, neither is it easy to conjecture when equality of treatment will become a fact. For these reasons this meeting resolves that the levying of duty by the Dairen customs should immediately be suspended.
2. For the furtherance of this our Resolution this meeting will send representatives to Tokio to lay the matter before the Ministers of State and both the Houses of the Diet. The points to be put forward and the manner of their representation shall be left to the discretion of our representatives.
3. Any expenses necessary for the furtherance of the Resolutions of this meeting shall be defrayed by subscription.
Regulations, combine the values of parcels and levy duty accordingly, a proceeding absolutely unwarranted.
We do not know if the Customs follow this course in order to prevent parcels being split up and thus evading duty; but as, according to the Japanese Parcels Post Regulations, the maximum limit of weight is 1 kwamme 500 me, the splitting up of parcels is in many cases a necessity. The whole proceeding can only be characterized as deliberate disregard on the part of the Customs of the friendly sentiments of our own officials. Moreover, although the Customs combine, for purposes of duty, the value of parcels arriving simultaneously, they do not do so when there is a difference of an hour or so between the arrival of two parcels. The whole thing is unreasonable, and, whichever way it is looked at, the Customs method is illegal, while as for our own postal authorities, they are stupid to allow such action to pass unnoticed.
(Translation.)
Inclosure 5 in No. 1.
Extract from the "Manshu Nichi Nichi Shimbun."
THE CUSTOMS INSPECTION STATION AT PORT ARTHUR.
THE question of a Chinese Customs inspection station at Port Arthur is now a settled one, but we should like to know all the same what China's idea is in thus interfering inside the Kwantung Peninsula and extending her Customs offices. We find it very hard to understand what she is aiming at. The whole point of the existence of the Customs inside the leased territory has been since the very beginning simply the levying of duty on goods entering Manchuria viâ the leased territory or leaving Manchuria by the same route—absolutely nothing else. Notwithstanding this, the Customs exerts itself right and left to extend its powers, and the result is numerous abuses, with a great deal of inconvenience to merchants generally. It was in October of last year that the Customs inspection station at Petsivo granted to one single firm in the place the monopoly of the Customs agency business. The result was that merchants generally had to make all their applications for customs passes through this one firm, a proceeding which entailed not only a huge amount of formalities, but also much expense and loss. The only persons profiting thereby were the firm aforesaid. As for our own countrymen, they took the fees levied on these customs passes to be levied by the Japanese Government, and were accordingly indignant. That is not all. There have been instances in which merchants who have not been prompt in obtaining these passes have been detained at the custom-house. But in truth we have not time to recite one by one the abuses that exist, and although the lack of regular system in the levying of duties is due not only to the arbitrariness of the lower Customs, but also to mistakes on the part of the Japanese residents of the Kwantung, the Chinese Customs are an absolutely unnecessary institution. To allow their powers, then, to be extended cannot possibly be to the advantage of the friendly relations between Chinese and Japanese or to the benefit of trade. As for the inspection station at Port Arthur there is not the very slightest need for it, and its establishment will simply result in trouble and dissatisfaction. That at least is the opinion of a merchant of our acquaintance.
(Initialled) H. P.
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Extract from the "Ryoto Shimpo."
REMARKS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PARCELS POST AND THE CUSTOMS.
(Translation.)
THE system at present followed is this: If two or more than two parcels are sent at the same time by one consignor to one consignee, neither of the said parcels being of the value of 17 taels, duty is levied all the same by lumping the value of the two parcels together. This, too, notwithstanding the fact that the Regulations of the Chinese customs are quite clear on the point that no duty shall be levied on any parcel which is not of the value of 17 taels. Thus the Customs here, in the face of their own clear
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